Photographing in the sun: the most important tips at a glance!

On sunny days, it's wonderful to head out with your camera, but bright sunshine can sometimes spoil the perfect shot. We've listed a few tips for photographing in the sun.

Use a flash

It may not be the first thing you think of when photographing in the sun, but a flash isn't only useful in dark situations. Especially when the sun is shining brightly, a flash can come in very handy. By adding this extra light source, you can lighten the shadows created by the sun a little.

Bring a reflector

Instead of a flash, you can also use a reflector. With a reflector, you can control the sunlight by bouncing it onto your subject. Reflectors come in all shapes and sizes and are often easy to fold up, making them ideal to take anywhere.

Use shadows creatively

Bright sun creates harsh shadows, which often results in an unflattering photo. But you can also use shadows creatively. For example, make the shadow the subject of your photo, or create a silhouette of your subject with the sun in the background. Let your creativity run free!

Don't forget your lens hood

Always use a lens hood on your lens when photographing in the sun. The lens hood blocks light falling on your lens from the side, so you don't get flare in your photos. This prevents washed-out colours and gives you deeper saturation.

Shoot in RAW

When the sun is high, you get a lot of contrast in your photo. The highlights and shadows are then very far apart and sometimes show no detail at all. By shooting in RAW, you retain more detail in the highlights and shadows in these areas and can still correct this in post-processing.

Choose the right time of day

Sometimes you'll simply have to accept that the light isn't right at that moment to create the perfect shot. In that case, come back at a later time! The composition you had in mind may look much more beautiful during the blue hour or golden hour than in the middle of the day, for example.